Many a girl dreams about the day her long term love asks for her hand in marriage. Most envision this blessed event taking place over a romantic dinner with champagne and soft lighting. But for the best girl of an infantry Soldier, things may be a little different.

For Erin Hering, the last thing she expected was to find her true love proposing on a rifle range. But on Nov 20, Cpt. Brooks Demmer, Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, took to one knee outside a shoot house off Kole Kole, here on Schofield Barracks.
Erin and Brooks, both Eagan, Minnesota natives, have dated for three years, and engaged to tie the knot during Cacti Battalion's Spouse Day, a day geared by the battalion to allow spouses of infantry Soldiers the opportunity to live the life of their infantry Soldier for a day.

"We will always look back on this Spouse Day as special, because it was the day I asked for her to be MY spouse," said Demmer.

"I was really happy but shocked!," said Hering. "I immediately started bawling!"

"I have been thinking about asking her to marry me for months," said Demmer, "But wasn't sure how I wanted to do it. So I thought that this was probably the best way to really embarrass her and for her to not see it coming."

Demmer and Hering plan to have a small ceremony to tie the knot over their upcoming holiday leave.

"We'll have a big wedding when he gets back from deployment a year from April," confirmed Hering.

With that, Demmer strapped his Kevlar combat helmet onto the head of his bride to be and ushered her onto the range to show her how to shoot a machine gun. Only in the infantry do you find a love like that.